Cruise Critic Parent Company TripAdvisor Becomes More Social

(10:55 a.m. EDT) -- Cruise Critic's parent company -- TripAdvisor, the world's largest online travel resource -- today revealed it's becoming more social, with a new site and mobile experience launching in late 2018.

The new design will position TripAdvisor as the most personalized and connected travel community, where members can draw inspiration and more easily plan and book vacations through social assistive tools that help them navigate around information. The tips and advice, which cover travel and cruise, will be mainly derived from other travelers and trusted experts, including TripAdvisor brands like Cruise Critic. Among the other experts will be National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, GoPro and The Knot; the new site and mobile experience also will feature content from social media influencers.

While members' experiences will be elevated by these "travel feeds," they also will enjoy the ability to share new content to TripAdvisor's online community of more 661 million reviews and opinions. In addition to photos and videos, members will be able to create "Trips," which range from in-depth travel guides and itineraries to wish lists of activities to do while traveling -- or cruising. (Trips can be kept private or made public to inspire others.)

When planning a trip to a particular city, members might see information like a food critic's article on the best restaurant, an influencer's travel guide of must-dos, and a friend's review of a local hotel.

"TripAdvisor is poised to disrupt the travel industry once again as we create a more personalized and connected community," said Stephen Kaufer, CEO & co-founder of TripAdvisor. "The new TripAdvisor is the one travel site that brings together social-assistive tools, amazing content and our existing booking capabilities to merge the joy of planning and discovery together into a single experience. We are assisting our members at each step of their journey as we become a more personalized, inspirational and useful TripAdvisor."

The new site and mobile experience are now in beta, a testing phase in which a select group of users can try out the product. When it's officially rolled out (globally, across all markets and languages where the company operates), all members will log on to the new personalized home pages, where they can connect with other family and friends on TripAdvisor.